Surprise Verdict guilty on all 34 counts

No verdict today. Jury sent home

Court has just begun. The jury has asked for page 7 through 35 of the jury instructions read to them. and Testimony from Pecker and Cohen. they will come back to the courtroom for that.

There's been some confusion about what jury is actually looking at and what they will need to find trump guilty.

The Big Picture is did Trump pay Michael Cohen $400K+ in 2017 for legal services or did he reimburse Michael Cohen for paying Stormy Daniels and another expense. These payments were spread out over 11 checks.

Trump is charged with falsifying business records in the first degree.

11 falsified invoices

12 falsified general ledger entries

11 checks

For a conviction, the jury will need find that these are false and they will need to find Trump caused them to be false.

If they find that Trump will be guilty of a misdemeanor. The jury needs to be unanimous on this

However, it becomes a felony if the records were falsified to cover up another crime. The DA is saying that other crime is a NY election law to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.

The jury needs to be unanimous this occurred.

The DA is proposing three different "unlawful means"

1. violations of federal election campaign act
2. falsification of other business records; or
3. violation of tax law

The jury doesn't not need to be unanimous about which unlawful means occurred.

The is because in NY you need to prove the ELEMENTS of the crime. The jury needs to unanimous on the elements, of the crime, but they do not need to be unanimous on the MEANS of the crime. (The witness saw the murdered beating the victim in the head and then get in his car. Witness got the license plate. Beating is the ELEMENT. Beating with a rock vs a hammer is MEANS of the crime)

The story the prosecutors are saying is that David Pecker, Michael Cohen and Donald Trump met in Trump Tower in 2015 and conspired. Specifically they are saying they violated this law

Section 17-152 - Conspiracy to promote or prevent election. Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. N.Y. Elec. Law § 17-152.

As part of these scheme Michael Cohen formed a company that executed an NDA with Stormy Daniels and paid her $130,000 in 2016. Later Trump reimbursed Michael Cohen this money plus extra money for tax purposes. This occurred over a series of 11 checks.

So today the jury has asked to hear David Pecker's and Michael Cohen's testimony. This is the beginning of the case. It's where the prosecution started.